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Drug Discovery Co-Creation Symposium: Co-hosted by National Cancer Center Japan, RIKEN and LINK-J
september 14, 2026
National Cancer Center Japan (NCCJ)
RIKEN
National Cancer Center Japan (NCCJ) and RIKEN, in collaboration with LINK-J, hosted the Drug Discovery Co-Creation Symposium on August 5, 2026, at the LINK-J Global Life Science Hub. The symposium followed the February 2026 renewal of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on collaboration and cooperation between NCCJ and RIKEN, originally concluded in 2016.1
Under the theme “Unlocking Japan’s Drug Discovery Potential,” the symposium brought together experts from academia, industry, and government to discuss strategies for overcoming bottlenecks in drug discovery and accelerating the translation of research findings into clinical practice through NCCJ-RIKEN collaboration.
During the symposium, speakers discussed key challenges in radionuclide therapy and presented initiatives undertaken by NCCJ and RIKEN to address these issues, including therapeutic approaches based on in vivo synthetic chemistry and alpha-particles radiotheranostics. The symposium also highlighted mathematical drug discovery as an innovative approach to transforming the drug discovery process by integrating artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance computing (HPC), and multimodal clinical cancer data.
Presentations featured examples of medical applications of RIKEN’s quantum computing and HPC technologies, as well as NCCJ’s integrated AI platform that leverages its extensive cancer datasets to support drug discovery and clinical development. Key stakeholders from industry, academia, and government also discussed the future of collaborative drug discovery. Panelists exchanged views on the gap between academia and industry, often cited as one of the causes of the “valley of death” in drug development, and expressed strong expectations for further progress through enhanced collaboration.
Opening remarks were delivered by Tomoko Ikuta, Deputy Director-General, Minister’s Secretariat, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) and Kaoru Manabe, Deputy Director-General, Minister’s Secretariat, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW), (read by Teru Someya, Director of the Office for Support of National Centers for Advanced and Specialized Medical Care). Hiroyuki Mano, President of NCCJ and Makoto Gonokami, President of RIKEN, made concluding remarks. All speakers expressed their expectations that strengthened collaboration between NCCJ and RIKEN will further enhance Japan’s capabilities in drug discovery.
Note 1
For more information, please visit the LINK-J website.